Stay ConnectedNonprofit Pulse is a nonprofit podcast that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission.
Each episode features conversations with nonprofit leaders and experts, delivering practical ideas and fresh perspectives to help you grow your impact.
Ciara Byrne started Green Our Planet in 2013 with ten schools in Las Vegas, and her nonprofit funding lesson is that one dependable revenue source is not enough. Nonprofits need diverse revenue streams and a business model that can support the mission when funding shifts.
In 2020, Green Our Planet lost half of its annual budget within a month as funders redirected money. Ciara did not see that as a reason to abandon the mission. She saw it as a reason to monetize the expertise the organization had already built through school garden and hydroponics programs.
In this episode:
How Green Our Planet grew from ten Las Vegas schools to more than 1,200 schools in 43 states
Why some foundations now look for 20% to 50% of revenue to come from a business model
How selling programs to schools and corporations supports STEM education and community empowerment
What it took to get a Nevada school garden bill passed on its first attempt after serving about 400 schools
Why the organization aims for 15% of revenue from sales now and 50% over the longer term
You will leave with a way to look at your nonprofit's expertise, identify a revenue opportunity that fits the mission, and begin diversifying without stretching the team too thin. Be creative, be optimistic, and be kind to yourself as you go down that route.
Episode highlights: (0:00) When one funder is not enough (1:18) Why funding diversity matters (4:56) Turning expertise into revenue (8:20) Diversification pitfalls (13:34) Revenue options for small nonprofits (16:16) Tradition and innovation in balance (21:20) Metrics that show what works (25:11) Ethics behind new revenue (29:53) Where to start diversifying
Guest: Ciara Byrne, Founder, Green Our Planet
Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/nonprofit-pulse-diverse-revenue-streams-for-sustainability
More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/
If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.
Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.
Howard Adam Levy has spent about 30 years revitalizing brands, and he says nonprofit branding is not a logo exercise. The President of Red Rooster Group defines a nonprofit brand as its reputation: what it says it does, how effectively it does it, and the perception people carry away.
A strong brand helps people understand a mission quickly, then gives donors a way to act on their own altruistic impulses through the organization. That means being clear, consistent, and willing to measure an outcome beyond awareness.
In this episode:
The three building blocks of a strong brand: organizational name, tagline, and visual identity
How the 183-year-old Leake and Watts became Rising Ground after growing to more than 40 programs
Why USBLN changed its name to Disability:IN and turned a vague label into a galvanizing theme
A before-and-after measurement question: whether people know three of six things you do, including after-school work and meals
How a $30 monthly Canva subscription or $40 monthly ChatGPT subscription can support small, immediate brand experiments
You will leave with a practical way to test whether people understand what you do, connect your brand to fundraising and program goals, and decide where a bold next step can make a difference.
Episode highlights: (0:00) Why a nonprofit brand is more than a logo (1:05) Defining the reputation people carry away (5:16) The three building blocks of a strong brand (13:22) Visual identity that makes a mission recognizable (16:35) From Leake and Watts to Rising Ground (20:27) Why Disability:IN changed its name (24:34) Stories that give donors a way to act (28:33) Keeping the brand consistent everywhere (33:05) Measuring more than brand awareness (42:56) $30 experiments for a stronger brand (47:27) The next bold step
Guest: Howard Adam Levy, President, Red Rooster Group
Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/nonprofit-pulse-how-to-build-a-strong-brand
More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/
If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.
Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.
Dan Rhoton, CEO of Hopeworks, says a social enterprise nonprofit has one job: deliver for its clients. Hopeworks uses market-based business tools to move young adults into long-term, living-wage careers, but Dan argues that social mission should not be the first thing a buyer hears.
The tension is real. A social enterprise has to operate a good business while keeping a promise to people whose lives depend on the result. Dan's answer is not to juggle competing priorities. It is to put clients first and make every other metric serve that promise.
In this episode:
Why Hopeworks gives work away once it becomes profitable, rather than letting client work displace its mission
How leading with a social mission in an RFP can lose the contract and get a donation instead
The promise behind Hopeworks' 96% placement rate and 93% 12-month job-retention rate
Why a Monday-morning KPI report makes a yellow or red metric somebody's problem that week
How a small pilot, not an innovation strategy, determines whether an idea gets scaled or thrown away
You will leave with a framework for setting a participant promise, tracking the metrics that protect it, and building partnerships around mutual benefit. As Dan puts it, effectiveness matters more than innovation.
Episode highlights: (0:00) The business that must put clients first (1:13) What makes a nonprofit a social enterprise (2:13) The operational squeeze (5:41) Market-based tools that serve the mission (9:21) The metrics that define success (15:06) Why effectiveness beats innovation (16:31) Partnerships built on mutual benefit (18:58) Where to start with client promises
Guest: Dan Rhoton, CEO, Hopeworks
Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/nonprofit-pulse-social-enterprise-nonprofit
More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/
If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.
Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.
Albert Chen, Co-founder and CEO of Anago, says the most immediate AI for nonprofits use cases are personal, not organization-wide. He works with resource-constrained teams, and he argues that generative AI is smart autocomplete, not a substitute for human judgment.
The useful starting point is small: research, drafting, and critiquing work that already consumes a team member's time. The rule is equally simple. Give the tool grounded source material, then check the final output before it goes out.
In this episode:
The difference between traditional AI's predictive analytics and generative AI's words, images, and sounds
Albert's external, internal, and personal framework for finding AI use cases
How Perplexity and You.com can synthesize dozens of websites into a report in about 30 seconds
Why asking AI for "radical candor" can turn it into a critic for a grant proposal or board briefing
The custom GPT that translates stories from Hindi to English and turns them into a summary
You will leave with practical ways to test ChatGPT or Claude, a method for reducing hallucinations by supplying more ground truth, and a boundary for relational work with donors and people served. Keep that work human.
Episode highlights: (0:00) AI as a tool, not a substitute for judgment (2:40) Where AI can help right away (9:40) Finding and engaging donor prospects (13:38) Forecasting donations and donor behavior (19:31) The AI tools worth starting with (23:17) Keeping relational work human (30:50) Making AI accessible on a nonprofit budget (33:50) Ethics before the first AI pilot (41:00) What AI could change next (43:12) A practical place to begin
Guest: Albert Chen, Co-founder and CEO, Anago
Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/how-ai-can-empower-nonprofit-organizations More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/
If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.
Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.
Elana Frank, CEO and Founder of the Jewish Fertility Foundation, grew a one-location pilot in Atlanta into ten locations without turning JFF into a franchise. Her nonprofit provides financial assistance, support, and education to people struggling with infertility.
Her expansion rule is direct: do not choose a random location. Start with need, test the opportunity against a defined set of conditions, and say no when a community asks the organization to go outside its proven program.
In this episode:
Why JFF pilots locally before expanding, and why one Cincinnati expansion took a little over a year
The three mission prongs JFF protects: fertility education, fertility support, and financial assistance
How grassroots relationships with reproductive attorneys, therapists, rabbis, and community leaders build buy-in
Why a $100,000 local operation does not simply become a $200,000 budget in a new city
How JFF uses full-time executive staff, local managers, and graduate-school social-work interns
You will leave with a framework for choosing locations, building a larger infrastructure, and modifying a model without losing its purpose. Piloting and flexibility can coexist with a clear boundary around mission creep.
Episode highlights: (0:00) Expansion without becoming a franchise (1:00) What to test before expanding (7:30) Keeping mission and values intact (9:09) Replicating success in a new community (11:20) Relationships that make expansion work (15:03) The operational challenges ahead (19:29) Staffing for a larger footprint (23:59) Where a new location should start
Guest: Elana Frank, CEO and Founder, Jewish Fertility Foundation
Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/how-to-scale-a-nonprofit-expanding-your-local-model
More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/
If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.
Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.
Mark Lillis is Chief Executive Officer of Leaven Kids, an organization that has operated for 15 years, and he says community collaboration is built through continuous communication, not transactions. He shares how long-lasting, mission-aligned partnerships have helped Leaven Kids keep more than 90% of its partnerships.
A corporate partner can offer much more than money. Mark makes the case for being face to face, thanking people, involving stakeholders, and letting partners see both the work and the hardships families face.
In this episode:
Why Leaven Kids spent two and a half years meeting with the San Antonio community before entering the city
How Mark sends hundreds of handwritten thank-you notes each month to appreciate partners
What winning Chick-fil-A's national award twice taught Leaven Kids about corporate partnership
How 21 learning centers reported an 80% increase in math and English arts and better self-esteem for 90% of students
Why a work party painted miles of fence in 4 to 5 hours and helped distribute hundreds of pounds of food
You will leave with practical ways to find partners who will stick with the mission: start with why, clarify expectations early, respect volunteers' time, and keep people informed. Supporters may not have the time, Mark says, but they have the heart.
Guest: Mark Lillis, Chief Executive Officer, Leaven Kids
Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/nonprofit-community-collaboration More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/
If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.
Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.
Sarah Silvestri and Tiferet Sprung, Co-founders of Executive Arm, say scaling a nonprofit is about impact, not simply getting larger. Executive Arm helps nonprofits through internal capacity development, executive coaching, and strategic program design.
That means a nonprofit can scale by improving program quality, reaching more people, or partnering with another organization. It does not mean hiring people with the founder's level of passion or saying yes to work that falls outside the mission.
In this episode:
The four areas to assess before scaling: organizational capacity, financial health, leadership, and program effectiveness
How one nonprofit went from no employees and no financial structure to four employees while serving 150 family units
Why an extra $75,000 must still be available to pay a hire in the second year
The risk of hiring one person for one job while expecting them to do six jobs
How a quarterly or five-minute monthly mission review can prevent mission drift
You will leave with a lens for deciding whether a new opportunity fits, where a partnership or merger may extend impact, and why investment in overhead can make a nonprofit more sustainable over the long term.
Episode highlights: (0:00) Growing bigger versus scaling impact (0:47) The difference between scale and growth (2:07) What successful scaling teaches (5:53) Financial sustainability before expansion (13:18) Scale without losing the mission (22:32) The leadership and capacity to build first (25:16) Practical first steps toward scale (29:40) Choosing impact over size
Guest: Sarah Silvestri, Co-founder, Executive Arm Guest: Tiferet Sprung, Co-founder, Executive Arm
Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/how-to-scale-a-nonprofit
More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/
If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.
Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.
Elizabeth Cushing has more than 30 years of nonprofit management experience, and she says nonprofit culture gets stronger when play is not treated as the opposite of work. The CEO of Playworks explains how the power of play can strengthen relationships, creativity, and adaptability.
This is not about forcing fun or promising a guaranteed result to a board. Elizabeth treats play as a discovery: an invitation that lets people bring their whole selves to the work and reveals what a team can solve together.
In this episode:
Why people who meet on monkey bars or slides can seem like they have known each other within 5 to 10 minutes
How a four-square game removes the pressure to be an expert and makes everyone an amateur
The 1- to 2-minute stories about play Elizabeth invited 400 Playworks staff members to share
What Playworks learned about morale after staff furloughs during the pandemic
Why a small group should test a playful practice before deciding who the right messengers are
You will leave with permission to begin small: ask a question that has nothing to do with the meeting content, invite people into the game without forcing them, and see what it inspires. Play can remind a team that adapting is a strong strategy.
Episode highlights: (0:00) Why play makes nonprofit work stronger (0:58) Play is not the opposite of work (3:18) Making room for creativity at work (6:46) What play changes about morale (8:47) Professionalism can make room for play (10:58) Inviting play without forcing it (16:49) A small test for a more playful culture (18:45) Start with an invitation, not a mandate
Guest: Elizabeth Cushing, CEO, Playworks Playworks resources: https://www.playworks.org/
Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/nonprofit-culture-the-power-of-play
More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/
If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.
Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.
Stewart Severino has spent more than 25 years driving growth in startups and large organizations, and he believes nonprofit innovation needs to be a discipline, not an exercise in throwing ideas at the wall.
A defined process makes innovation repeatable, predictable, and scalable. Stewart argues that organizations often begin with a product, a technology, or a familiar assumption instead of first understanding what their audience actually needs. Innovation is not AI, and AI is not innovation.
In this episode:
How the Jobs-to-be-Done framework exposes assumptions about an audience that may be 3 to 10 years old
Why Netflix competed with a bottle of wine, date night, and bowling, not only Blockbuster
How to treat donors as human capital by inviting them into service, local chapters, or board roles
Why an NPS score can be a leading indicator while revenue is a lagging indicator
How customer-experience mapping, service blueprints, and root-cause analysis make innovation operational
You will leave with a way to start with the need of the audience, choose measures that reveal progress early, and put guardrails around experiments. The goal is not another shiny object. It is serving your organization and audience better than before.
Episode highlights: (0:00) Innovation is a discipline, not a shiny object (0:45) What makes innovation a discipline (3:17) The barriers to repeatable innovation (6:49) The Jobs-to-be-Done framework (11:54) Turning Jobs to be Done into action (15:48) Metrics that reveal progress early (20:55) Making innovation part of culture (25:03) Start with your audience's need
Guest: Stewart Severino, Head of Innovation, The Navigators
Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/nonprofit-innovation-as-a-discipline
More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/
If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.
Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.
Stephen King, Founder and CEO of GrowthForce, says a sustainer program is simply a monthly giving program, and it can transform both cash flow and donor retention. GrowthForce is an outsourced accounting department for nonprofits, from bookkeeping through CFO services.
The case is stark: monthly donors retain at 80% in the first year, compared with 41% across all donors. After five years of monthly giving, the retention figure reaches 95%, compared with 23% for one-time giving.
In this episode:
How Amnesty International USA grew from $6 million to $18 million when 92% of revenue came from direct mail
Why prompting a donor during the first gift matters when only 14% of nonprofits do it
The case for bank debit over credit cards, so organizations do not have to chase expired cards
How Wheelchairs For Warriors uses its Touch 22 program to connect $22 per month to 22 veterans who die by suicide each day
The $500 annual donor example that becomes $50 monthly, $600 annually, and a 20% increase
You will leave with a simple launch approach, the key retention and cash-flow metrics to follow, and a reminder that a sustainer program is not set it and forget it. Build a donor connection through cultivation emails and concrete outcomes.
Episode highlights: (0:00) Why monthly giving changes the math (0:57) What makes a sustainer program (1:30) The benefits of monthly giving (2:47) The retention advantage of sustainers (6:02) The challenges to expect (9:28) Promoting a monthly giving program (12:05) The metrics that grow sustainers (16:15) Why one program is enough (19:20) Launching your first sustainer program (22:07) The donor connection that keeps giving
Guest: Stephen King, Founder and CEO, GrowthForce
Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/monthly-giving-program
More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/
If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.
Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.
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